Obviously Christina is talking about the Summer Solstice on June 21. The solstices are easy for me to remember because my wife's birthday a day or two before the Summer one and my birthday is the day before the Winter Solstice.

Did you see the stories online about "Manhattan-henge"? A lot of them mistakenly said THAT was the solstice, when the Sun sets due west and shines right down the numbered streets in Manhattan. Actually there are 2 Manhattan-henges, 3 weeks (or so) before the real solstice and 3 weeks (or so) afterwards.

My wife used to have fantasies involving a group of friends reading through A Midsummer Night's Dream. I still have a fantasy about going to Sweden, drinking too much Akvavit and hanging out with blonde skinny dippers. Probably her fantasy is more likely to come true than mine.

Frank Deis wrote:My wife used to have fantasies involving a group of friends reading through A Midsummer Night's Dream. I still have a fantasy about going to Sweden, drinking too much Akvavit and hanging out with blonde skinny dippers. Probably her fantasy is more likely to come true than mine.

This sure seems like something that ought to be celebrated, but I've not done it. Just from going over the list of Midsummer festivities on the Wikipedia page, it looks as though food is not a big part of these things. Bonfires seem to be the common theme, so I guess grilling would be appropriate.

In youth, a nice round of bocce in the garden au naturel sipping young wine would have offered itself as an idea, but given the shortage of virgins these days, and the fact that the neighbours would object to that sort of thing militates against this traditional approach, and anyway, you tend to lose balls in the moonlight.

Better to do an evening barbie and bay at the moon standing around the fire pit?

Thanks all. I knew there was something amiss about summer equinox ! I did have in mind listening to the last act of Meistersinger as I believe it takes place on the summer solstice but not everyone is an operavore. Food does not seem to play a major role in the festivities from what I am reading as well so I'll just have to make something up

Christina Georgina wrote:Thanks all. I knew there was something amiss about summer equinox ! I did have in mind listening to the last act of Meistersinger as I believe it takes place on the summer solstice but not everyone is an operavore. Food does not seem to play a major role in the festivities from what I am reading as well so I'll just have to make something up

Hey, if there's not a tradition yet then you should start one! Let us know what you cook.